


Fair and Square

by spiralmaiden



Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, Nice Guy Rin, Pillow Fights, Samezuka babs, and as an apology, cameos by Ai and Momotarou, dorm antics, there may or may not be references to sharks, too stupid to live too adorable to die, written for Sousuke's birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-15
Updated: 2014-09-15
Packaged: 2018-02-17 11:50:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2308667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiralmaiden/pseuds/spiralmaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin gives Sousuke the bottom bunk. Sousuke won't have it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fair and Square

**Author's Note:**

> So, back in July, before everyone knew exactly what was going to go down in S2, I said some terrible things (I believe an exact quote was "I nominate new guy for horrific injury"). Take a lesson from me, kids: don't wish harm on anyone (EVEN FICTIONAL CHARACTERS) because you'll only end up regretting it. A lot. 
> 
> Happy birthday, Sousuke. I'm sorry.
> 
> Also, all of the credit for this fic goes to my wife, since it was actually all her idea. I just gave it some vague structure, if you can even call it that.

A rain of streamers to the face wasn't what Sousuke had been expecting upon returning to his dorm, and yet it was happening. The popper was contraband from the team’s Regionals celebration earlier. He has to push a tangle of them off his forehead to give his attacker a rueful look.  Another surprise is that he has to look up.

Rin is grinning a sharp-toothed, self-satisfied grin from the top bunk. “Congrats,” he says, “consider this an extra service as part of my favor for your best efforts. The bottom bunk, all yours.”

Sousuke feels like he should be, but he isn't touched by this magnanimous gesture for even a moment. He can feel his face pinching together in irritation and watches the change mirror in Rin’s expression. In an instant, they may as well be children fighting in the halls of their school again. “I don't want it. Get down.”

“Hah? What are you on about, you can't just pass over a generous offer like this.”

One of Rin’s bare feet is hanging over the edge of the bed. Sousuke shrugs and grabs it by the ankle with his better arm and pulls. If that’s how he wants to play this, Sousuke is game. He'll drag him down thrashing to his heart’s content if he has to.

“Hey, what are you doing!? Leggo!”

He knows Rin’s got a powerful kick, but he’s counting on the reason Rin pulled this stunt in the first place to keep him from using it now. That thought just makes him more irritated and he tugs harder.

“You like the bottom bunk, right? Just take it!” Rin’s shout is punctuated by a useless flail.

“You won it, it’s yours. I don't want it like this.”

“What do you mean anyway, 'like this!?'”

He pulls until Rin makes a distressed noise and is forced to grab the headboard to keep from getting dragged over the edge. Sousuke huffs a sigh through his nose and glares over the edge of the bed at him and tries not to shout. “I’m not dense, Rin. I know why you did this and I…!”

He stops when he sees Rin’s face, how he’s suddenly rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. “So,” he says, “guess that’s another reason you didn't say anything, huh. Afraid I'd do something like this?”

Sousuke opens his mouth and a dozen responses come to mind before he closes it and sighs again as he lets go of Rin’s foot. He actually doesn't want to fight. Not after the last few days. “Listen,” he says, “if you want to add an extra service to your favor or whatever, all I’d ask for is that you trust me. I know I hid it from you, lied about a lot of things, but … most days I can manage little things like getting up to the top bunk. You've seen me. You don't gotta treat me like glass now just because you know.” The fact that Rin wanted to though makes Sousuke smile a bit. “If you can trust me again, I can let you know if I need any help. But, let me decide when I need it.”

A younger Rin might have blustered more, might have hemmed and hawed and muttered sour-grape platitudes as he shrugged his way down from the higher bed. But this Rin has grown into every centimeter of what he could have become back then, so Sousuke gets a pensive look and the beginnings of an apology. It makes something well up inside of him that’s almost too much for him to stand.

“Sorry about this, I just thought--” And before Rin can finish, Sousuke has pulled his pillow from the bottom bunk and hurled it into his face with a resounding _biff!_ that’s surprisingly loud in the small room.

“Rin, you either think too much or not enough,” says Sousuke. The pillow is still hanging off Rin’s face at a comical angle and he just can't help it: he laughs. Maybe a little too much. Maybe _a lot_ too much.

When the pillow finally slides off and he can see Rin’s face again, Sousuke wonders if the pillow is two seconds away from being shredded by his teeth. But, then it’s launched back at him with a yell, followed up with Rin’s own, _prized_ , pillow. “Asshole, take that!”

“Oh, I will,” says Sousuke, stuffing Rin’s pillow under one arm while using his own to continue hitting the other boy mercilessly, “I'm keeping this.”

“ _Like hell!_ ” That, of all things, is what finally gets Rin to jump down.

He’s still unarmed though, and in much better range now, but before Sousuke can resume his assault, the door bursts open and two more voices join the fray, one much louder than the other.

“Rin-senpai, we're here to back you up!”

“SENPAI, BACK AWAY, WE’LL BE YOUR OPPONENTS NOW!”

Sousuke finds himself being battered from both sides and now he’s laughing so hard he drops Rin’s pillow, immediately turning the pillow fight into a battle royale. The fight spills out into the hall and absorbs two other rooms before the RA comes to none-too-gently remind them that _the party’s been over for hours so get back in your damn rooms!_

It takes a bit of doing, but Sousuke finally manages to convince the younger Mikoshiba that they won somehow and there’s no need for a rematch. He closes their door pointedly and heads back to his own room, where he finds Rin tossing his pillow onto the bottom bunk, the bedding already neatly switched back. He seems pleased with himself, and can't help but grin as he kicks at Sousuke’s shin.

“There’s your bed back, happy?”

“Yeah, thanks,” says Sousuke. “I won that fair and square, after all.”


End file.
